Sports legends rarely get to see and question one another. Yet on a sun-splashed afternoon at Riviera Country Club during the 2026 Genesis Invitational, that is exactly what happened. The Los Angeles Lakers decided to trade a practice session for a private suite above the 18th green. To engage with them, host Tiger Woods started taking questions from the NBA professionals. And that’s when a difficult-to-answer question came to him from the legend LeBron James.

“I asked him what the difference in the challenges of climbing the ranks was,” James revealed in an exclusive with The Athletic. “What was the hardest challenge? Was it more of a challenge or harder to climb from zero to No. 1 — or stay at No. 1 knowing everybody was chasing you?”

For someone who has been in both situations for a long time, this question is hard to answer. However, Tiger Woods had a pretty straightforward response to it. He said that both had their own challenges.

The Big Cat’s ascent to World No. 1 was marked by sheer dominance. After turning pro in 1996 at the age of 20, he took only five starts to register his first PGA Tour win. By early 1997, he registered two more wins before his breakthrough at the 1997 Masters. Within 8 months of debuting and 42nd week as a pro, the 15x major champion rose to the World No. 1.

He was the fastest to climb to that spot. Yet, it all started from zero. And it’s not just about climbing there, though. The 82x PGA Tour winner also holds the record for most consecutive weeks as the World No. 1. He maintained the position for 281 consecutive weeks.

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So he was the right person to answer this question from another legend with similar success in his sport. Thus, LeBron James couldn’t agree more with Tiger Woods.

For James, however, maintaining the top position is slightly more challenging than reaching it. He revealed that he already knew he was among the top performers in college and junior golf. But he knew that he had to start from zero once he started playing in the NBA, and that’s exactly what he did.

Tiger Woods has praised the NBA legend for his skills on multiple occasions. For instance, when LeBron James passed Kareem Abdul‑Jabbar on the all‑time scoring list, the American golfer publicly praised him.

“As far as the LeBron record, what he accomplished is absolutely incredible of just the durability, the consistency and the longevity,” Woods said.

Both Tiger Woods and LeBron James have respect for each other, their sports, and their skills. But this cross-sport respect and relationship is not something the Big Cat is experiencing for the first time.

Tiger Woods reveals seeking help from Michael Jordan and Derek Jeter

Golf.com created the “Tiger Woods: 30 Years of Influence series” in honor of the 30th year of the TGR Foundation and Woods’ professional journey. During an episode of the series, Woods told Jordan Spieth that handling the Tiger-Mania fame in the early days was challenging for him.

To cope with the challenge, he used to seek advice from two other athletes who were experiencing the same fame.

“And so Jeets [Derek Jeter] and I and MJ [Michael Jordan] we would meet up and where the Bulls are playing in New York and I would come in, and we’d go to a Yankee game, or we’d go to the Bulls game or whatever it and we’d all hang out and kind of chit-chat. I was picking their brains,” he said.

The 82-time PGA Tour winner also explained why that era was especially challenging. He revealed that information flowed mainly through hearsay and the written press. There was no social media or camera phones. So basically, if he wasn’t friendly with fans all the time, some false rumors would start flying.

Long before his Riviera exchange with LeBron James, Tiger Woods leaned on peers like Michael Jordan and Derek Jeter. Now, he is repaying by sharing his experience with the Lakers players.